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I stopped at my supply bank to pick up my weekly order of pennies today. The teller that orders my coins said she didn't know how much longer she would be able to get me my bags of pennies. She said the person she talks to at the armored car service that supplies her bank with coins told her that the FED has requested that they (the armored car service) ship all their "old" pennies to them and that they (the FED) would replace any pennies that they need to supply their customers with "new" 2011 pennies.

Have any of you heard anything like this from your banks? Or is the armored car service just getting tired of bringing my weekly order?

The Canadian government has been melting down old coinage for profit for the better part of the last decade. I'm surprised it took your government so long to catch on.

Is that why I have $600 still in brand new pennies?

I've been having trouble getting more than 50 per weekly lately at my bank. I get bagged pennies.

It's your bank or the transport service.

Our government is too stupid and slow to reclaim copper cents.

I wonder how many members of congress know about the copper penny?

Thogey wrote:Our government is too stupid and slow to reclaim copper cents.

I agree completely. If they were going to do it they would have started when they initiated the melt ban. "They" know about the value, but I doubt many people "in charge" do.

But hell I'd welcome that! New pennies are worth more than old ones on ebay! My bags come straight out of the coin counting machines in the lobby...find a bank that accepts loose coins, and you're doing them a favor taking the bags away for free.

I agree. I save my bank money by taking the bags away. I only wish I had more money because my pickup banks have more than I can afford. I don't see it slowing anytime soon.

I could see the melting to make coinage with less copper.

I.e. Zincolns


I actually have expirienced first hand, getting large batches of zinc only. It is sporadic, but becoming a problem.

http://mintnewsblog.blogspot.com/2011/0 ... -2011.html

If the fed was actually collecting all of the "older" pennies than you would see the production numbers much higher!


I would guess that the bank knows that you are sorting for copper and is tired of dealing with pennies.

There is one bank that will either not give me pennies in volume ($5 max) or else give me boxes of new pennies with a few dirty rolls showing if I order ahead. I talked to one of the desk jockeys (asian lady) once as I was placing my first order and she asked if I was sorting for copper. I avoided the question and talked around it saying I liked to collect old pennies especially the wheat pennies. She said her husband was a copper sorter. When I came back a week later to pick up my boxes I ordered, they were the worst boxes I ever got. They were mostly new pennies, but only 90-95% new with dirty rolls mixed in. They weighed out at 98%+ zinc. I'm sure they were her husband's reject boxes. I got the message and haven't been back to that branch. Funny thing is that other branches of the same bank are great to deal with. It's all a crap shoot. If someone doesn't want to deal with you at the bank because you become a pain, there isn't much to do except move on.

Of course the Fed is "up to something". Good luck figuring out what.

I think a lot more people are sorting pennies or at least keeping there own copper. A couple of my extra banks were saying that people have been buying large numbers of pennies. So I offered to exchange pennies I gave them my zinc for fresh ones and got a decent percentage. I feel bad for the poor sap who gets my zincolns.

Since when does the fed control coinage? I thought that this was the last real government check over the oligarchy. Doesn't the mint/treasury call shots over the fiat?

John_doe wrote:Since when does the fed control coinage? I thought that this was the last real government check over the oligarchy. Doesn't the mint/treasury call shots over the fiat?

It's the job of the Fed to monitor the cash supply in the respective districts. L district low on Pennies due to aggressive sorting? Send them a few tons worth. C District low on Dollar Bills due to strip club useage? Send them a few pallets.

cesariojpn wrote:

John_doe wrote:Since when does the fed control coinage? I thought that this was the last real government check over the oligarchy. Doesn't the mint/treasury call shots over the fiat?

It's the job of the Fed to monitor the cash supply in the respective districts. L district low on Pennies due to aggressive sorting? Send them a few tons worth. C District low on Dollar Bills due to strip club useage? Send them a few pallets.

Fed buys the paper money at face, but has to reimburse Treasury Dept the actual cost of making coins, so the Fed won't be happy with having to buy pennies or nickels at greater than face value. The pressure to change coinage comes, interestingly enough, from the Fed (a private corporate) rather than Treasury. Treasury could care less as they get their costs back.

Possible that the Fed - not Treasury - could have a copper storage program started that hasn't gotten attention?

I had posted elsewhere a week or two ago that I had had an odd week of travel within state during which I had rec'd no copper pennies in change.

That has continued! I have not gotten a single copper penny in change for 5 weeks! Unheard of (for me, here). It was normal for me to get copper in change at roughly the same overall average proportion that I rec'd from bank rolls. I'm wondering if something is up...

68Camaro wrote:Possible that the Fed - not Treasury - could have a copper storage program started that hasn't gotten attention?

I had posted elsewhere a week or two ago that I had had an odd week of travel within state during which I had rec'd no copper pennies in change.

That has continued! I have not gotten a single copper penny in change for 5 weeks! Unheard of (for me, here). It was normal for me to get copper in change at roughly the same overall average proportion that I rec'd from bank rolls. I'm wondering if something is up...

Hmmm...I just pulled 7 coppers out of 10 from today's change. Higher than usual.

68Camaro wrote:Possible that the Fed - not Treasury - could have a copper storage program started that hasn't gotten attention?
I had posted elsewhere a week or two ago that I had had an odd week of travel within state during which I had rec'd no copper pennies in change.

That has continued! I have not gotten a single copper penny in change for 5 weeks! Unheard of (for me, here). It was normal for me to get copper in change at roughly the same overall average proportion that I rec'd from bank rolls. I'm wondering if something is up...

Highly highly unlikely. With all the people I know in the coin industry myself or someone would have heard about this. I also know that they would start in a place like LA rather than a place like ND.

Number21 wrote:Hmmm...I just pulled 7 coppers out of 10 from today's change. Higher than usual.

Highroller sent the wrong bag to the bank?...

68Camaro wrote:Possible that the Fed - not Treasury - could have a copper storage program started that hasn't gotten attention?

I had posted elsewhere a week or two ago that I had had an odd week of travel within state during which I had rec'd no copper pennies in change.

That has continued! I have not gotten a single copper penny in change for 5 weeks! Unheard of (for me, here). It was normal for me to get copper in change at roughly the same overall average proportion that I rec'd from bank rolls. I'm wondering if something is up...

I have not been getting many coppers in change either, I just figured coincidence

TXBullion wrote:

68Camaro wrote:Possible that the Fed - not Treasury - could have a copper storage program started that hasn't gotten attention?

I had posted elsewhere a week or two ago that I had had an odd week of travel within state during which I had rec'd no copper pennies in change.

That has continued! I have not gotten a single copper penny in change for 5 weeks! Unheard of (for me, here). It was normal for me to get copper in change at roughly the same overall average proportion that I rec'd from bank rolls. I'm wondering if something is up...

I have not been getting many coppers in change either, I just figured coincidence

Or, y'know, there could be an unknown sorter in that area taking his/her share.

Measuing the copper "population" by such a small sample size as pocket change will see some craziness as a result of standard deviation. For any sample size to be statistically accurate, you need at least several hundred thousand trials (or pennies in this case). Just like you could flip a coin 10 times and get heads ten times in a row, but if you flip it a million times your results will be so close to 50/50 that you could bet your house on it.

ed_vantage17 wrote:Measuing the copper "population" by such a small sample size as pocket change will see some craziness as a result of standard deviation. For any sample size to be statistically accurate, you need at least several hundred thousand trials (or pennies in this case). Just like you could flip a coin 10 times and get heads ten times in a row, but if you flip it a million times your results will be so close to 50/50 that you could bet your house on it.

Yes, there will be some craziness with limited sampling. A week without might be a bit unusual, but not rare. Two weeks without becomes more unusual. Three weeks. Four weeks. Five weeks. It's now six weeks, for me, and not just in one area, but over a random range of geography from Orlando to Ft Lauderdale. At some point this starts to become significant. I'm not saying there are none to be found. I'm just saying that they seem to be becoming rarer, rather suddenly, and more signficantly so.

Last I heard on the news is that China will need more copper:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 39392.html

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-1 ... rally.html


How high could copper go and would anyone have the foresight to start an alloy recovery program for our own government?

So far no problems in GA....just the standard low % relative to other regions like Ed-vantage in WI who readily acquires 30% Cu. GA -still about 10 - 14%. I think the cat is out of the bag, but as far as our fantastic government goes, I'm not so sure they are covertly scopping up the Cu as of yet. But as I am typing this, my thoughts went to the possibility of a covert operation by the government to acquire Cu without telling the public. Hmmm, makes you wonder. The US is so broke it would not surprise me if they are trying to quietly capture Cu. Time to ramp up efforts and hoard more!